Home game rules that differ (1 Viewer)

[Bluegrass Poker]

The rulings 101 thread got me thinking.

Do any of you play or host a home game that has any odd or peculiar rules that vary from TDA and/or Robert’s in any significant or strange way.

 

[Mr Winberg]

Yes, I do not add an extra seat for the final table.

Background: We're usually around 20 players, +/-5. We play 8 per table, because I think 10 is a bit too many, it slows down the game. In tourneys, the more hands per hour the earlier people are gonna be eliminated, and therefore the higher the average stacks will be, allowing more play for the survivors. Having fewer players also ramps up the aggression which also helps. In my experience, the beginning of the final table is the slowest part of the tourney because blinds are usually high and it feels like every decision is for your stack, hence lots of tanking. I've played at homegames where we got like four or five hands the first 20 minute level of the 10-handed final table. Half am orbit. Awful!

Therefore, there's no way I'm increasing from 8 to 9 at this stage! In fact, I'd rather do the opposite...

IME, in general having 8 instead of 10 helps keep the average stacks higher and allows the players more hands per hour. Keeping it at 8 for the final table helps in keeping up the nr hands/h at a slow part of the tourney, therefore also eliminations per level, the latter allowing the survivors to play a bit deeper.

I reduce the BB ante to half when ITM (usually 4 or 5 players). I want the bubble play to have the full ante so it doesn't take forever for it to burst and leave all survivors short stacked. When heads-up I remove it completely.

Also: Anyone who is doing host duties is NOT folded if they're not in their seat. There will be no poker nights without these tasks being carried out, so the table will have to wait.

 

[ruskba]

I had some time to revamp my house rules during the pandemic, looking forward to seeing how my players react to this one:

 

[JScott]

I have one friend whose house rule is allowing a “round the world” straight.

drives me nuts.

 

[Taghkanic]

I have one friend whose house rule is allowing a “round the world” straight.

drives me nuts.

Where does it rank? Is QKA23 better or worse than A2345?

 

[JScott]

Yes... and QKA23 is better than JQKA2

honestly, I think he does it just to piss me off. Bloody Aussies. (he’s one of my best friends)

 

[Irish]

I had some time to revamp my house rules during the pandemic, looking forward to seeing how my players react to this one:

View attachment 612998

Lol I was just coming to post this, well played.

 

[ArielVer18]

Is the following significant enough?

New player starting between the small blind and the button can play for free, but the button will skip the new player the next hand. Alternatively, the new player can "buy the button."
More time spent playing cards.

All players are dealt in. To have a live hand, players must be at their seats when the action comes to him.
Avoids having to keep track of missed blinds.

During the draw round of any Draw games, the proper dealer procedure is to push and pull a participant's draw cards. An exposed card on the draw cannot be taken. However, if the player elects to have his draw cards pitched by the dealer, it will be so at the player's risk and any exposed card in that circumstance will be kept by the player.
RRoP has an extensive section on what happens to exposed draw cards. This eliminates all those hypothetical situations from ever happening... except when the dealer doesn't know to push and pull.

In Dramaha, if a card is exposed during the draw, the dealer will set the exposed card aside and complete the draw so everyone behind the player with the exposed card will receive their intended draw cards. The next card on top of the deck is flipped up to be the turn card. Finally, before the turn betting starts, the dealer will push, not pitch, one replacement card to the player with the exposed card. The exposed card will then be placed face up on top of the deck to be used as a river burn card. This rule only applies if the dealer was not instructed to push and pull draw cards during the draw round.
Very obscure house rule. Used only once because dealer didn't know to push and pull and accidentally exposed a card.

 

[Frogzilla]

I play a home game where, if you are stuck more than a buy-in you can go south/rathole in between hands at any time for your rebuys (but not original buy-in). So if buyins are $100, and you’re having a bad night and somehow in for $800, you’re allowed to ”unrebuy”a couple times if you turn it around. In practice, it’s actually a pretty good rule

 

[Taghkanic]

Yes, I do not add an extra seat for the final table.

Background: We're usually around 20 players, +/-5. We play 8 per table, because I think 10 is a bit too many, it slows down the game. In tourneys, the more hands per hour the earlier people are gonna be eliminated, and therefore the higher the average stacks will be, allowing more play for the survivors. Having fewer players also ramps up the aggression which also helps. In my experience, the beginning of the final table is the slowest part of the tourney because blinds are usually high and it feels like every decision is for your stack, hence lots of tanking. I've played at homegames where we got like four or five hands the first 20 minute level of the 10-handed final table. Half am orbit. Awful!

Therefore, there's no way I'm increasing from 8 to 9 at this stage! In fact, I'd rather do the opposite...

IME, in general having 8 instead of 10 helps keep the average stacks higher and allows the players more hands per hour. Keeping it at 8 for the final table helps in keeping up the nr hands/h at a slow part of the tourney, therefore also eliminations per level, the latter allowing the survivors to play a bit deeper.

I reduce the BB ante to half when ITM (usually 4 or 5 players). I want the bubble play to have the full ante so it doesn't take forever for it to burst and leave all survivors short stacked. When heads-up I remove it completely.

Also: Anyone who is doing host duties is NOT folded if they're not in their seat. There will be no poker nights without these tasks being carried out, so the table will have to wait.

Totally with you on 7-8 players being a better game than 9-10, whether cash or tourney.

 

[CraigT78]

I play a home game where, if you are stuck more than a buy-in you can go south/rathole in between hands at any time for your rebuys (but not original buy-in). So if buyins are $100, and you’re having a bad night and somehow in for $800, you’re allowed to ”unrebuy”a couple times if you turn it around. In practice, it’s actually a pretty good rule

This IS NOT my game.

 

[bsdunbar1]

I play a home game where, if you are stuck more than a buy-in you can go south/rathole in between hands at any time for your rebuys (but not original buy-in). So if buyins are $100, and you’re having a bad night and somehow in for $800, you’re allowed to ”unrebuy”a couple times if you turn it around. In practice, it’s actually a pretty good rule

 

[CraigT78]

House rule at Windy Crest - you get up, you better not come back without have offering to refill my beer.

 

[mashoo]

4 unique pairs in Omaha is the absolute nuts.

 

[Rhodeman77]

4 unique pairs in Omaha is the absolute nuts.

a lot of games play this like a 7-2 game in hold’em, where everyone has to pay that player $X if they win with it.

 

[xdan]

I play in a game that has shit house rules.

1. if it’s heads up in a hand, you are not allowed to talk to the other person to gain info on your strength of their hand. This ‘isn’t fair’. Go figure.
2. If you bet out of turn accidentally, you then must check if checked to. Your bet does not stand.
3. One that isn’t ‘too horrid’ and standard in some places is what constitutes a min raise.
blinds 5/10 raise to 20. Next raise has to be 40, not 30
4. Allowing rabbit hunting every fucking hand.

 

[Leonard]

The player who splits the pot gets the odd chip.

We do this even though we have gone to playing with a single $5 blind and no $1 chips. Anybody sitting in the middle of the table and splitting pots all night long for the occasional redbird will happily change seats with you if you want to make a few bucks.

 

[scaredmoney]

I have one friend whose house rule is allowing a “round the world” straight.

drives me nuts.

I watched someone in a Casino go all in thinking that was real!

I do a Mississippi Straddle with ultimate last under the gun or on the button. Sometimes you can re-straddle after under the gun.
We sometimes will agree to thrown in $x.xx amount and check down the rest of the way if all parties agree.

 

[pltrgyst]

My house rules included "No straddles" and "No one allowed to bet or raise $13 except the host."

OK, the second one wasn't written, but it was observed...

I tried "No Farting", but that was unenforceable.

 

[ekricket]

This is a cardplayer cruise rule - if you leave the table to go to the bathroom and you don’t miss a dealt hand then you didn’t stay long enough to wash your hands, so go back and wash, miss a hand, then you can play.

 

[jcooper911]

4. Allowing rabbit hunting every fucking hand.

this is why i charge $1 per card that goes into the next pot... funnily enough less people are keen then.

 

[ekricket]

this is why i charge $1 per card that goes into the next pot... funnily enough less people are keen then.

We put it to a bad beat jackpot. $1 to rabbit hunt and also $1 to see someone’s hole cards. We aren’t card sharks, so revealing some info now and then isn’t a big deal. Somebody pays hole card maybe once every two-three games and same for rabbit hunting, maybe once a game. It was horrible before, but this highlighted it for everyone, and now that there’s a process in place hardly anyone uses it.

 

[longflop]

4. Allowing rabbit hunting every fucking hand.

This has evolved with me. I used to not mind it, even look forward to it, thought it was cool to see how it would have played out. Now, I can't stand it.

 

[Taghkanic]

After 10+ years and much experimentation with buy-in formats, we slowly settled into this hybrid model for rebuys/add-ons:

* Tourney bonuses for reserving early and also arriving on time

* One full rebuy per player allowed before the break

* Optional add-on at the break (40% of a starting stack)

* Instead of a full rebuy, you can take the add-on early before the break, any time you bust or drop below 20% of your starting stack. So you can in effect opt for a short rebuy/top off, or a full reload. But you can’t do both.

TBH the purist in me isn’t so crazy about this scheme, just because it’s complicated. It only works because we are a crew of regulars who rarely add new players, so I don’t have to explain it very often.

*BUT* this plan evolved over a long time, after much experimentation, and seems to have created the most satisfaction among the group. It allows most everyone to get in a decent amount of playing time even if they’re running bad, without encouraging maniacal BINGO play.

My preference would be for a higher buy-in, no rebuys and very deep starting stacks. But human nature seems to be that people prefer to add money to the prize pool in smaller increments, rather than putting it all up front. Even when this results in them spending the same amount of money or even more than they would with a higher single buy-in price.

 

[Jake14mw]

I play in a game that has shit house rules.

...
3. One that isn’t ‘too horrid’ and standard in some places is what constitutes a min raise.
blinds 5/10 raise to 20. Next raise has to be 40, not 30
...

How many use this rule in their games? We use it in our game, and I didn't even realize it was not a standard rule until we started playing on Pokerstars and it allowed non-2x raises!

 

[Taghkanic]

How many use this rule in their games? We use it in our game, and I didn't even realize it was not a standard rule until we started playing on Pokerstars and it allowed non-2x raises!

We have always played the raising rules by the book, but I can count on two hands the number of times someone has used the correct min raise option. I think this is in part because some people still don’t really get it, and the ones that do rarely find a spot where using it is optimal.

 

[Rhodeman77]

This has evolved with me. I used to not mind it, even look forward to it, thought it was cool to see how it would have played out. Now, I can't stand it.

I played in a game that if you wanted to rabbit hunt you had to pay $1 to the bad beat fund to see it. So it didn’t get used that much, usually just in very big pots. Sometimes it would work to get the guy that folded to go on tilt when it was the guy that won the pot that paid to see he would have lost!

 

[Poker Zombie]

We allow rebuys without being felted. You forfeit any chips that were remaining in your stack. This prevents 1) that last minute short-stack shove-fest before the rebuy time runs out, and 2) Short stack doesn't have to lose chips to his opponents, making victory that much further away. We implemented this rule in 2005, but now it has caught on in many card rooms. Zombies are trendsetters.

Our rebuy gives a player a 110% starting stack. This encourages more rebuys, especially for those that ride into the last-chance-to-rebuy break with a shorter stack.

We also have semi-random instead of fully random seating.

• Seat 1, Table 1 goes to the previous tournament's winner. Seat 1 Table 2 goes to the runner up. This prevents the two best (from the previous tournament) from starting at the same table. (note, exceptions have been made to this rule to make seating a mobility impaired player easier).
• A players finishes over the past 2 seasons will weight the random factor, in such a way that players that win more have a greater chance to start at the main table, while those that lose more will tend to sit at an outer table - now dubbed the Kids Table.
• I have a very complex formula that determines if spouses (or other opponents) finish better if they start at the same table. It could be good reads, or it could be collusion. Either way, the spreadsheet notices anomalies like this and will start those players at separate tables more often. It also gives me something to look out for. We have only positively caught someone doing this once (he was an angle shooter, she honestly didn't know better), but there have been other suspects.

Actual seats at the table relative to seat 1 are still random, only table assignments are weighted.

 

[Bluegrass Poker]

My house rules included "No straddles" and "No one allowed to bet or raise $13 except the host."

OK, the second one wasn't written, but it was observed...

I tried "No Farting", but that was unenforceable.

I’d have to kick myself out of my own game if I had the last rule.

 

[JScott]

I just forgot one of MY non standard house rules. If it limps to the big blind and he/she isn’t paying attention, I check it for you.

I’ve been dealing our games lately and notice sometimes when it gets limped to the BB (our game is soft as melted butter), they’re always pre occupied and often an annoying player will be in the middle of a story and then when I finally get their attention, they either check or min raise. Drives me batty. So to speed it up if they’re not paying attention, I auto check their option.

no one objects, but I need to find other ways to punish people who don’t pay attention, our game is ridiculously slow, but it’s soft enough I punish them in other ways.